Gun control has been in the news lately, and whether you’re a gun proponent or oppose them, the sad fact is that according to the Center for Disease Control, in 2010 we had 11,078 gun-related homicides across the United States.

With the Sandy Hook tragedy etched in our minds, our president unfortunately seems to blame the gun and not the person pulling the trigger. So as I watch the debate, I wonder whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability for a person’s behavior.

But my question is, why just gun control? In 2010, we had 10,228 deaths in the U.S. caused by drinking and driving, and I don’t see any of the same presidential urgency or societal outcry being held to deal with this issue. Or is it we’ve gotten so immune to the news reports about DUIs that we don’t pay attention anymore.

Whether it’s guns or alcohol, if an individual abuses them, it can have tragic results. Having lost my 19-year-old daughter in a DUI-related crash, it saddens me that we seemingly accept one form of death over another. As a society we should be fighting just as hard for changing laws concerning drinking and driving as we are now with gun control.

Maybe the next thing is to blame the vehicles for such deaths. So the question remains, how many more people are we going to lose to drunken driving before it becomes the issue of the day?

– Eric Munson, Heidi’s Promise (www.heidispromise.org)